The Vegas Golden Knights presented Pope Francis with a custom hockey jersey Friday.
The NHL team showcased the Pope's excitement:
Pope Francis has expressed support for the unifying nature of sports since taking over as the head of the Catholic Church in 2013.
Last June, the Argentina native wrote a letter about sports to the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life in which he noted athletics is a "meeting place where people of all levels and social conditions come together to reach a common aim":
"In a culture dominated by individualism and the gap between the younger generations and the elderly, sports is a privileged area around which people meet without any distinction of race, sex, religion, or ideology, and where we can experience the joy of competing to reach a goal together, participating in a team, where success or defeat is shared and overcome; this helps us to reject the idea of conquering an objective by focusing only on ourselves.